The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Conservation has warned that without rapid action to transform our economies, a million species will become extinct, many within decades.

Against this backdrop, the conservation challenge can feel overwhelming. This talk will attempt to inject some optimism and argue that that we can take the action needed to prevent catastrophe. Drawing upon 25 years of experience, Martin will give examples of how science and values-based campaigning have not only helped to prevent loss but also improved the natural world.

As leaders prepare to agree a new global biodiversity framework at April 2022’s UN summit in China, he will explain what conditions need to be in place to justify conservation optimism in the future.

Martin Harper has 25 years’ experience of conservation leadership. He is currently BirdLife International’s Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia supporting the work of BirdLife partners in 45 countries. He joined BirdLife in 2021 having spent the previous decade as Conservation Director for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) – BirdLife’s UK partner. He has also worked for Plantlife International and Wildlife and Countryside Link.

He was educated at Oxford University and University College London and undertook research in the Comores and Mongolia. He has served on many not-for-profit boards and is currently an advisor to the recently launched Real Wild Estates Company - the UK’s first ecosystem and species restoration business offering sustainable financial returns.

For his ten years as the RSPB’s Conservation Director he wrote a blog and has recently started writing a new monthly BirdLife blog on the UN Decade of Ecological Restoration.

Lead photo credit: Starling murmuration by Katie Nethercoat / RSPB

This event is online and zoom login details will be sent a few hours before the start of the event.